In the midst of record-breaking high temperatures and a drought that’s left many farmers without crops in their fields and forced others to sell much of their cattle, local businesses in Russellville have also felt the effects of the dry summer.

“I’ve never in my lifetime seen it as dry as it has been this year,” said Jeff Maus, owner of Maus Implement Company. “This is the worst I’ve seen, and I’ve been doing this for 30 years.”

Maus, whose company specializes in the sale of John Deere farming and mowing equipment, said last week the Russellville location sold its first lawnmower since mid-May. The average in previous years, he said, was between 30-40 mowers sold each month.

With parts of Yell County still reeling from a wildfire that claimed about 1,200 acres near Ola last week that was presumably the result of a state contractor bush-hogging near the highway, Maus said he doesn’t blame people for not using farm equipment.

“The fire danger is huge. You don’t need to be out bush-hogging, you don’t need to be out mowing — you don’t need to be out doing anything,” he said. “That’s cut down on people using their equipment. It’s just sitting there.”

Maus, a row farmer who owns about 1,200 acres of farmland, said the lack of rain forced his family to cut their home-grown corn and sell it for salvage, and other farmers in the area are experiencing similar conditions.

“It’s going to be a very slow harvesting season and a very slow, long winter,” he said. “It has really, really hurt the farming community around here this year and we just have to pray for a better year next year, because there are a lot of people who won’t stand for two years of this.”

While the sales of farming equipment is down, Mike Apple, general manager of the Arkansas Valley Farmer’s Co-Op, said his company has been able to maintain sales through farmers looking to buy alternative feed.

“I can’t say we’ve really had an economic loss business-wise,” he said. “Cattlemen and row-croppers are struggling because they’re having to spend money on products they wouldn’t be buying if we were getting rainfall. But we’ve been really blessed as far as our business, considering the fact that the weather’s been how it’s been and so many cattle have left the area. Our business has actually held on pretty good, at least up to this point.”

Apple added if rain doesn’t come soon enough in the fall, many farmers who have held on through the drought will likely be forced into selling their cattle.

“If we don’t get rain early enough, then the folks who have held on to cattle aren’t going to have any choice. They’re probably going to have to sell and if that’s the case, then our feed season will probably be pretty short,” he said.

But while forecasted temperatures above 100 degrees for the next 10 days may give many a bleak outlook, Apple said the co-op tries to stay positive and look toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

“As bad as it is, it could be worse,” he said. “Everybody who comes through our doors wants to talk about gloom and doom, but we don’t want to talk about gloom and doom. We want to talk about how good it’s going to be.”